A few minutes later, the six of them were sitting comfortably around the kitchen island, happily wrapping their hands around the warm ceramic mugs and sipping the sweet cocoa. Penny watched them over the rim of her cup, a quiet thought drifting through her mind. She found herself wondering if her relationship status and her messy divorce were truly all they had wanted to ask her about. She hated to admit it, but a tiny, unexpected twinge of disappointment hit her chest. Was her own quiet, lonely history the only thing that had captured their curiosity?
But before she could even begin to analyze that feeling, Sophia leaned her elbows on the marble counter, looked Penny dead in the eye, and dropped a complete bombshell.
"Penny, is my gran dating Darius?"
Penny, who had just taken a large, appreciative gulp of her rich chocolate, froze. Her eyes went wide, and she nearly spewedthe hot liquid across the clean kitchen island. She managed to swallow just in time, but the cocoa went down the wrong pipe, leaving her coughing and sputtering into her napkin.
After a few frantic seconds of gathering her composure, she cleared her throat and patted her chest, her face flushing as she tried to think of a way out of the corner she’d just been painted into.
"I..." Penny hesitated, her mind racing. She had absolutely no idea how to answer that, or if she even had the right to. This was Linda's private life, and if anyone was going to tell these kids the truth, it had to be Linda herself. "You... you should really speak to your gran about that, kids."
Instantly, five pairs of sharp, highly intelligent eyes narrowed in on her. The cozy, relaxed atmosphere in the kitchen suddenly evaporated, replaced by the quiet, intense focus of a courtroom.
"Can't you just tell us?" Jake asked, his young voice softening as his shoulders slumped. He looked up at Penny, his gaze darkening with a very real, very heavy worry. "We just want to know if my gran is... is... happy. She had a really tough time with my grandfather."
"Yeah, and since you've recently gone through a divorce yourself..." Sophia added, her voice filled with the exact same worried, emotional weight that shone in her younger brother's eyes. "We know you understand why we just want to make sure our gran is happy."
Jake glanced down at his mug, his features shifting into a look of deep, genuine sorrow before he met Penny's eyes again. "My grandfather... well... he... he cheated on her. And now he and his new love are already getting married..."
"It’s just been really tough on Aunt Linda," Lily chimed in, adding to the heart-wrenching picture. She stared at Penny with her beautiful, big, teary, heartbroken eyes, looking for all the world like a lost little girl using Penny as a lifeline to find out if her beloved great-aunt was going to be okay.
Penny sat frozen, her heart absolutely breaking for them. She knew with absolute certainty that these kids loved Linda fiercely and genuinely worried about her well-being. But as a sharp, experienced attorney, Penny could also recognize a masterfully coordinated interrogation when she saw one. These sweet, angelic children were playing up their innocence to perfection, pulling at her heartstrings with expert precision to drag the truth out of her.
Before she could even try to find a safe way to deflect, Toby jumped right into the conversation.
"If Linda is seeing Darius," Toby said, looking thoughtfully at his chocolate mug, "was he the date she went out with the other night?" He shot Jake a knowing look.
"Yeah, we actually thought she was either dating Dr. Messing..." Jake began.
"Or seeing him to get plastic surgery, since he's a surgeon," Toby continued with a straight face.
"And Dr. Messing is definitely a little bit in love with my gran," Sophia added for extra context, nodding sagely.
Emma grinned, taking a quick sip of her cocoa. "Honestly, Dr. Messing would probably give Linda any surgery she wanted for free. Since you all pointed it out, I saw exactly how the man looked at Linda when we bumped into him at the mall the other day. He was utterly smitten."
"Yeah, he's going to be absolutely heartbroken," Jake concluded, shaking his head with mock sympathy. "Now that Gran is dating Darius."
Every single head at the island turned in perfect, silent unison, their eyes locking onto Penny as they waited for her reaction and confirmation. The silent, unspoken promise she’d made to answer anything they asked was hanging heavily in the air.
Penny stared back at them, her mug frozen halfway to her mouth. In the span of five minutes, she had gone from the cool, trusted aunt receiving a luxurious pampering session to a helpless rabbit caught dead in the bright, oncoming headlights of a semi-truck.
She looked at each of their faces in turn, from Sophia's sweet, expectant gaze to Jake's carefully manufactured look of sorrow, all the way to Toby's calm, analytical expression. They looked so completely innocent, sitting there wrapping their hands around their oversized mugs of hot chocolate, waiting for her to slip up.
A sudden, chilling realization hit Penny as she stared back at those seemingly angelic faces.
She had been played. Like a master fiddler executing the perfect, effortless rendition of a complex piece of music, they had orchestrated every single beat of this evening.
Penny knew it now, without a single shadow of a doubt. The girls giving her that wonderfully relaxing facial, the boys jumping to peel her grapes, the sweet emotional lifting up, the pinky promises, it had all been a masterfully calculated setup. They had pampered her, softened her up, and then walked her right into a trap she had eagerly snapped shut on herself.
Heaven help us,Penny thought, slowly lowering her mug to the counter with a shaking hand.Ihope these five kids don’t go into law or politics, because if they do, they'll become the most terrifying attorneys or politicians the world has ever seen.
MARTIN
Martin’s stomach let out a low, demanding rumble, a harsh reminder that he was absolutely starving. It was his protesting appetite that had ultimately driven him out of his silent office and straight toward the hotel’s kitchen. Nearly two hours ago, Rosa had taken his dinner order with a bright smile, promising it would be ready in no time. Yet here he was, still empty-handed, his patience finally worn thin by the delicious, torturous aromas wafting through the hallways.
Pushing through the swinging double doors, he stepped into the chaotic warmth of the kitchen, his deep voice carrying over the din of clattering plates and sizzling grills.
"Chef..." Martin called out, scanning the room. "Did you happen to get my dinner order? Rosa took it about two hours ago."
